The Parable of the Sower – 5
“Stony Ground 1”
Mark 4:16-17
“These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.”
Last week we talked about the power of the seed once again. We must understand the dynamite power of the Word in order to fully grasp this Parable. Then Sunday night we talked about the wayside ground. The people who were hearing the Word had hearts that were hard, ears that were dull, and eyes that didn’t want to see.
When the Word comes and we choose not to accept it, we get no harvest and the enemy doesn’t have to do any work to get your harvest. He just simply walks away with it.
Wayside seed can also be seed that was spread, but no one was listening. No one made themselves available to hearing the Word, so it automatically becomes wayside. Therefore, that’s all Satan has to do is pick it up and walk away with it. If the Word is not received, accepted or acknowledged, the Word will not produce anything. In order for the Word to work in our lives, it must fall on good ground. But if we are not receiving anything, it falls by the wayside. This is how people can come to church for years and never see any change in their life or their circumstances. Although we love to blame Satan for all our problems, we see in the Parable of the Sower that if we don’t receive and implant the Word deeply into our spirits, we will be wayside ground that bears no fruit.
In this next type of ground, the Stony ground, we have just read that the people heard the word and received it with gladness. In other words, they heard the Word and then shouted, “THIS IS AWESOME!” These are the people who leave church and say, “Man that preaching was awesome! Did you hear that Word? That is awesome! God is going to heal my body! God is going to set me free from this addiction! God is going to work in my family! But if we keep reading in Mark 4:17, we find the fault:
Mark 4:17, “and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.”
➢ The KJV says they are offended. The word stumble in the Greek is scandalizo and it means, “to trap you, to trip you up, to cause you to stumble or to entice you to sin.”
Satan wants you to be one of the offended so that he can cause you to backslide. People stumble, people get offended and backslide. I have seen it happen. It happened, not because of the offense, it happened because they became stony ground. What was the reason for the offense? “Because they had no root in themselves.”
➢ Turn over to Luke and look at his account. Luke 8:6, “Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.”
It is important to note on this type of ground that the seed was planted.
Let’s say you are laying a new lawn. If you lay sod on the ground and water it only on the day you laid it, the sod will soon turn yellow, then brown. You could easily kick up the entire piece of sod because it would have no root system. If you watered it on a regular basis, however, the sod would begin to put down roots. Over time, and with regular watering, you could try to dig it up, but it would be rooted so there would be no way to kick it up.
Sin occurs in people’s lives because we fail to put down roots in the Word. We can get so busy working for God and working for the church that we miss this point. That busyness is not the same as planting and watering. No wonder Jesus said that if you don’t know this parable, you don’t know any of them.
So many Christians think, “I go to church; I give my time to the things of God. Why is this happening to me? Why am I not seeing any changes or getting any results?” They haven’t been doing any watering. They laid the sod, but then they walked away.
➢ Someone else can’t water the grass of your inner spirit; you have to water your own grass.
There are too many Christians with no root.
Jesus gives us two reasons why people are offended or stumble
I. MANY ARE OFFENDED BECAUSE OF AFFLICTION
Let’s look again at Mark 4:17, “And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: Afterward, when affliction or persecution arises for the Word’s sake, immediately they are offended.”
Turn over to Luke 8:13, “But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.”
➢ So, we find that Mark calls it “affliction and persecution” and Luke calls it “the time of temptation or testing.”
➢ The Greek word for affliction is “thilipsis:” Meaning, “pressure of circumstances, anguish, or tribulation which can be financial, physical, mental or emotional in nature.”
Sickness and disease are certainly afflictions. Remember, Satan’s intent and desire is to get you so offended that you sin, get tripped up or fall.
➢ Listen very carefully: God is not using affliction to get you to become offended; He has no interest in doing that.
Satan will create drama. He will produce situations that bring pressure against you. He will bring times of testing. We find the answer to how to handle Satan’s times of testing in the Bible.
James 1:2-6, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”
When the Word comes to you, Satan will come and bring a test. God doesn’t bring tests to you. Some of you say, “Well I don’t agree with that.” Doesn’t matter what you agree or disagree with. The Bible says that God doesn’t bring tests to you. Drop down further in this same chapter and we see this.
James 1:13-14, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”
Some of us need to start getting mad at the right guy. You are offended because of what God supposedly did to you or allowed something to take place in your life. If there is one thing that we can learn from this parable it is that everything happens for a reason, and most of the time that reason has nothing to do with God. It has to do with our ground. We need to remember that God is never our problem! God is always our solution!
➢ God did not cause that stressful situation.
➢ He did not put you in that painful situation that you might be in.
➢ He did not cause that suffering to happen to you.
➢ He is not trying to teach you something.
➢ He is not even trying to punish you.
➢ God does not operate that way.
➢ James is so adamant about it that he even says, “Don’t even say that. Don’t even let those words come out of your mouth.”
God is not your problem. God and His Word are always your solution.
Some are offended because of afflictions. Most of that offense comes when we believe that affliction is from God. We need to start receiving the seed and start watering that seed so we can get some roots down deep so no enemy in hell will be able to come and lie to us again.
II. MANY ARE OFFENDED BECAUSE OF PERSECUTION
➢ The word persecution actually means, “A pressure, anguish, trouble or a situation where people are used as the instrument.”
Affliction and persecution are very similar. The big difference is afflictions are circumstance related and persecution is people related. Again, we can see this happening all the time in the church. Many people backslide because of what someone said to them or about them. They get offended at other people’s actions. If you are like that or know someone like that, the Bible gives a very clear reason why they are that way. Uh oh! You are not going to like this one. It is because they have no root in the Word. This is not your preacher speaking or giving an opinion on the matter. This is what the Word says about this people. If you are easily offended, then you can identify with the stony ground person. The Word will not work fully if you are stony ground. You need to grow some roots, some backbone and not let others offend you.
Satan is trying to dig up the Word that you have heard. Let’s not make it easy for him. He is working a lot less nowadays with our modern day Christians. He just has to come and kick up some sod on his way by in some people’s lives. I will not allow him such easy access in my life. And I hope you make the same choice this morning. I refuse to be stony ground.
Next Sunday morning we are going to talk about redeeming the stony ground and how to do that. How do we change?
